FORFAR defender Iain Campbell admits he’d be roaring on Dunfermline in tonight’s play-off nailbiter if he wasn’t lining up against them.

But he insists any sympathy he has for his old club’s plight will be set aside for 180 minutes of football.

The 27-year-old, son of Loons boss Dick Campbell, began his career at East End Park and made almost 40 appearances during three seasons.

The Fifer, who still has friends at the ailing club and knows a handful of their players from games against them, has watched in astonishment at their descent into administration in recent months.

Throw in the fact that Dunfermline’s Jim Jefferies was the manager who took him away from his boyhood heroes, courtesy of an ill-fated move to Kilmarnock in 2007, and that many of his friends and family are Pars fans, and it’s clear Campbell has a lot riding on the outcome of the two-legged semi-final.

But there is only one result he wants from a tie that could plunge Dunfermline into the uncertain future of life in the Second Division.

He said: “It’s going to be a strange experience. I’ve still got friends there, I know a few on the playing staff and Jim Jefferies signed me for Kilmarnock.

“I’m still a Dunfermline fan, I would be going to watch them if I wasn’t playing football and I’ve got mates who are fans too.

“I’ve been speaking to people at the club throughout the season and it’s unbelievable what’s happened off the pitch. It’s been terrible watching and wondering what will happen.

“I know I’ll get a bit of stick from my friends and family if we win over the two legs but I can only think of Forfar and making the final.

“There definitely won’t be any room for sentiment on the day. We just need to go on and win it.”

Meanwhile, Jefferies insists the SFL were wrong to hit Pars with the points penalty that has plunged them into a nervy relegation play-off and put more jobs on the line.

After struggling to make ends meet amid salary delays, seven players were made redundant when the Pars were placed into administration in March.

The SFL decided to deduct 15 points from the Fifers on April 9 as punishment, leaving them just four league games to try to save their First Division status.

But the win that would have guaranteed safety eluded them at the weekend when they went down 2-1 to Airdrie and the young side thrown together in recent weeks will have to negotiate two nerve-jangling ties, starting with tonight's semi-final first-leg, if they are to avoid being relegated.

That fate would inevitably result in yet more job losses and cutbacks, assuming the 128-year institution survives administration.

Jefferies said: “I’m not saying this because it’s Dunfermline but we must face facts, all they’re doing is hurting players and it’s not the players that put the club in this position.

“There should be other sanctions. If it affects clubs in that they don’t survive, then you’re just hitting the players again. You’re asking a lot of kids who are just trying to make their way in the game.

“I’m all for clubs who don’t run things right being penalised but they should look at transfer embargoes etc.”

Pars are set to be without defender Callum Morris, who featured in PFA Scotland’s First Division Team of the Year, for the play-offs after he tore a hamstring in the loss to Airdrie.